Microsoft Promises Not to Do It Again, Hands Down Twelve Tenets
by Alex Woodie

Microsoft has faced its share of criticism about its business practices over the course of its history. Illegal product bundling, abuse of monopolistic power, heavy-handedness with partners, and, now, objections over predatory pricing--one needn't dig very deep to find such complaints. To prove those days are over and that it's on the up-and-up with consumers, competitors, partners, and regulators alike, the company last week published a set of one dozen principles it says will guide the ongoing development of the Windows desktop platform. And you thought Microsoft didn't care. READ MORE >

The AMD-ATI Acquisition: Integration and Freedom for Customers, IHVs
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Who says you can't have it both ways? That is, in essence, the grand strategy that has lead processor chip maker AMD spending $5.4 billion to acquire graphics processor and chipset maker ATI Technologies. Not only does AMD want everyone to believe that it can have it both ways--have a captive graphics chip and chipset maker--but that this is, in fact, an inevitable consequence of convergence pressures in the IT industry.READ MORE >

Microsoft Grows Yearly Revenue by 11 Percent
by Alex Woodie

A strong fourth quarter that saw revenues increase 16 percent to $11.8 billion buoyed Microsoft's fortunes for 2006, as the software giant brought in $44.2 billion for the year, an 11 percent increase over 2005. Microsoft also did some housecleaning by making changes to its reporting structure--the number of reporting segments has been reduced from seven to five--and by announcing a $20 billion stock buyback plan. READ MORE >

HP Gears Up for Montecito Itanium Shipments
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

While last week finally saw the launch of the dual-core "Montecito" Itanium processors from Intel, it is going to take some time for vendors to get enough chips and to qualify the chips in their new, modified, or unchanged product lines. And so it is for Hewlett-Packard the dominant supplier of Itanium-based systems in the world. HP has not yet set an exact date for shipping, apparently. READ MORE >